[ptelomere]

Living here for more than a decade, spent first five years just working myself to death. Then I managed to finally settle, bought a car and started exploring the country. The difference between Tokyo/Osaka/Nagoya and the country-side is stark.

I don't think that's a bad thing, "Abandon" is the wrong word, we simply "return" the land we no longer use to nature. We only borrowed it in the first place anyway.

As for making cities more crowded, I don't think that's a bad thing either. Tokyo is pretty nice, you can pretty much get whatever you need within walking distance, I lived there for 5 years before I had a car, and I explored the city and its every corner within that 5 years on foot, bicycles, trains and buses, never felt any inconviniences.

[totetsu]

Yes we return anything too expensive to dispose of by official routes to nature too, old fluorescent light bulbs, car tires, microwaves, old micro vans, …

[npteljes]

Abandon is a good word, because the return you describe seems to be passive. Many of the abandoned sites have lots of belongings left behind, with no sign of active clean-up effort. Since the intention that can be read from the signs is "leaving", the act is best described as "abandoning".